SYNOPSIS:
From the Academy Award winning director Anthony Minghella
(Best Director, The English Patient, 1996) comes an emotional
and thought-provoking modern drama set against the backdrop
of London's ever-changing landscape. Will, a successful landscape
architect is on the brink of the most ambitious project of
his career when he is suddenly pulled into a world he knows
nothing about- and a mistake he can't erase.
MOVIE REVIEW
You’d
need a lot of patience to sit through this one. Known for
his intellectual and heavy material like Cold Mountain (2003)
and The Talented Mr. Ripley (1999), English director Anthony
Minghella teams up with bad boy Jude Law again in this urban
drama thriller which looks good, but what a pity, difficult
to digest for the casual viewer.
Law
plays an architect who enters a whole new world he never knew
about after his office was broken into (hence the title “Breaking
and Entering” – you were expecting something naughtier?).
The married man gets to know the thief’s mother, gets
his life turned upside down and is forced to reassess his
own set of values.
The
synopsis already sounds heavy with its moralistic and emotional
content, and to sit through a 118-minute movie where characters
talk a lot (and have sex once in a while, giving it a M18
rating) will not be too appealing to the common movie-goer.
To
be fair, the drama does play out thoughtfully, with its different
character
developments unfolding at a steady, if not slow, pace. Law
is convincing as the confused corporate man, Robin Wright
Penn (Message in a Bottle, The Pledge) is vulnerably empathetic
as his wife, and the seasoned Juliette Binoche (The English
Patient, Paris je t’aime) gies a credible performance
of a woman tortured by class warfare in the cosmopolitan city.
Benoit
Delhomme’s (The Merchant of Venice, What Time Is It
Over There?) cinematography of the cityscape is cold, unfeeling
and appropriate for the movie. Gabriel Yared’s tender
score is beautiful when played out against the passions of
the movie. Important and pertinent social issues are explored
and questioned in the movie. So what is it that makes the
film so inaccessible?
Maybe
it is the unrealistic drama settings; maybe it’s the
meandering plot, or simply this reviewer’s lazy mind
which refuses anything as intelligently profound as this film
promises to be.
SPECIAL FEATURES :
This Code 3 DVD contains a “Director
Commentary with Director Anthony Minghella”,
and it sure explains a lot of intellectual and deep considerations
which the casual viewer will not have thought about. For instance,
in his signature deep voice, Minghella talks about how foxes
in London represent the lack of civilization between different
worlds, and how he feels that there is an intense dislocation
at home in London. There is also a lot of research done on
this film, which conceptualization began 15 years ago.
The
12-minute featurette “Making of Breaking and
Entering” has the cast and crew talking about
how great it is to film on location at King’s Cross
in London, and how the story’s significance about life-changing
events impacted the cast.
There
are also six “Deleted Scenes with optional Director’s
Commentary” which clocks a total runtime of
nine minutes. Included is also a “Theatrical
Trailer” for the film.
AUDIO/VISUAL:
The disc’s visual transfer complements the Delhomme’s
luscious cinematography, while there are 5.1 Dolby English
and 2.0 Stereo Thai audio tracks to choose from.
MOVIE RATING:
 
DVD
RATING :
Review
by John Li
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